25-year-old Joséphine is waiting in a food distribution queue along with hundreds of others. Her youngest child is firmly wrapped to her back. She is carrying an empty sack and bottle for the maiz, grains and oil that she will be provided. More than three years have now passed since Joséphine fled Burundi together with her husband and children.

Life in the Mahama refugee camp in Rwanda, where the family has sought temporary shelter the whole time, is difficult:

“The food we are receiving is so little, and it’s supposed to last so long. And we have no options to change the food. I pray to God for changes, so that we can have peace in my country, and my family and I can get a better future,” she says.

Violence and political unrest broke out in Burundi in 2015 in connection with the Presidential elections. Since then, more than 400,000 people have been forced from their homes and scattered across the region, seeking safety and protection.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has recently allocated DKK 10 million (USD 1.6 million) from Denmark’s Emergency Reserve Fund to strengthen the severely underfunded response to the Burundi refugee situation, which currently stands out as one of the most forgotten and underfunded refugee crises in the world.

The impact of the lack of available resources is felt in all areas of the response, but especially in cuts to already limited food rations, the deterioration of shelters, and inadequate water and sanitation facilities, which leaves the refugees in an extremely vulnerable situation. The capacity to provide services to unaccompanied children and survivors of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) is limited, health facilities are overcrowded, and more classrooms are acutely needed to ensure that children can go to school.

“Generous support and flexible funding from Denmark to the Burundi Situation helps UNHCR address gaps in the provision of protection, adequate medical care and better access to education. It also sends an important signal of solidarity to major refugee hosting countries, and to Burundi children, women and men, that they are not forgotten. We hope other donors will follow suit,” says UNHCR’s Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Burundi Situation, Catherine Wiesner.

The majority of Burundi refugees have sought protection in Tanzania. Here, more than 50 per cent of the refugees are still living in emergency tents, and children are attending school outside under trees because classrooms are too overcrowded. Other Burundi refugees have sought protection in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, Kenya and countries in Southern Africa.

UNHCR is working with partners and governments to receive new arrivals while responding to the needs of the hundreds of thousands of refugees already living in camps and urban settings.

UNHCR is also assisting those Burundi refugees who have opted to return home to do so in safety and dignity. While 53,000 have voluntarily repatriated in the last year, many more do not see the situation as conducive for their return and will continue to need international protection for some time.

One of those not yet ready to return is 44-year-old Désire Uwimana, who fled his home country in 2015 with his wife and four children.

“It was such a bad situation, and I have never before seen things like this. They destroyed everything, they killed people. I can’t believe that human beings can do this to each other,” he says.

Determined to start anew, Désire has learnt English in the camp, enabling him to pursue higher education and regain hope for a brighter future.

Denmark as a donor to UNHCR

Denmark has long ranked among UNHCR’s top ten donors, and was UNHCR’s 6th largest donor of unearmarked funding in 2017.

Denmark annually contributes with an Emergency Reserve Fund of DKK 50.5 million (USD 7.2 million) at the start of every year, which UNHCR can allocate to where the needs are most urgent. The flexibility of the fund allows UNHCR to respond to emergencies, which saves lives and assists displaced people with critical protection needs and acute basic necessities. In 2018, a total of five allocations has been made from the fund to operations covering the following situations: DRC (DKK 10M), Venezuela (DKK 10M), South Sudan (DKK 10.5M), Somalia (DKK 10M) and Burundi (DKK 10M).

Denmark’s other flexible contribution includes DKK 160 million in unearmarked funding. This is of vital importance to support the so-called “forgotten” refugee situations, which are critically underfunded as they attract minimal public attention.